Q 
127 


UC-NRLF 


Germany  in  Science 

THE    GERMAN    CLAIM    TO 
SCIENTIFIC  LEADERSHIP  REFUTED 


By  W.J.  HOLLAND 

Director  of  The   Carnegie  Inttitute 


ADDRESS    DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 
HUNGRY     CLUB,    DECEMBER    3,     1917 


Germany  in  Science 

THE    GERMAN    CLAIM    TO 
SCIENTIFIC  LEADERSHIP  REFUTED 


By  W.  J.  HOLLAND 

Director  of  The  Carnegie  Institute 


PRINTED    BY    PERMISSION    OF   DR.    HOLLAND 

ON  THE    REQUEST  OF  THE  SUPERINTENDENT 

OF  PUBLIC   SCHOOLS  BY  THE    BOYS    OF  THE 

RALSTON  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL 


RALSTON   SCHOOL  PRINTERY 
PITTSBURGH    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS 


COPYRIGHTED  BY  THE  AUTHOR  AND  PUBLISHED 

FOR  FREE  DISTRIBUTION  BY  THE  RALSTON  SCHOOL 

PRINTERY.      -      PITTSBURGH,  PENNSYLVANIA 


Germany  in  Science 

By    W.    J.     HOLLAND 

(Address  delivered  before  The  Hungry  Club.  Pittsburgh. 
December  Third,  Nineteen  Hundred  and  Seventeen.) 

ciENCE  is  ordered  knowledge.  Reverently  be  it  said, 
the  greatest  scientist  is  the  omniscient  Author  and 
Preserver  of  all  things.  We,  the  creatures  of  a  day, 
are  permitted  to  some  extent  to  think  His  thoughts  after  Him. 

Human  knowledge  as  it  exists  today  represents  a  gradual 
development.  The  science  of  the  twentieth  century  is  differ- 
ent from  the  science  of  the  first  century,  as  that  differed  from 
the  science  of  the  sixtieth  century  before  our  era.  In  com- 
parison with  the  accumulated  learning  of  the  priests  of  Isis, 
the  accumulated  learning  of  today  differs  as  light  differs  from 
darkness. 

The  greatest  advances  in  science  have  been  made  in  the 
last  four  centuries.  The  most  rapid  steps  in  the  acquisition  and 
ordering  of  knowledge  have  been  taken  within  the  past  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  I  will  not  now  endeavor  to  point 
out  the  reasons  for  this. 

There  are  many  sciences.  The  divisions  of  science,  using  the 
word  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense,  are  determined  by  the 


384474 


2  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

nature  of  the  subjects  under  investigation. 

Various  classifications  of  the  sciences  have  been  proposed. 
I  take  a  moment  to  point  out  a  few  of  the  major  subdivisions, 
at  the  outset  warning  you  that  all  the  sciences  are  more  or  less 
correlated. 

There  is  a  science  of  mind,  and  there  is  a  science  of  mat- 
ter. Mental  science  deals  with  mental  phenomena  and  the  laws 
controlling  them.  The  physical  sciences  deal  with  material 
forces  and  the  laws  to  which  they  are  subject.  Matter  may  be 
inorganic,  or  it  may  be  under  the  control  of  that  marvellous 
force  to  which  we  give  the  name  of  life.  Accordingly  the 
science  of  chemistry,  which  deals  with  the  ultimate  composi- 
tion of  matter,  is  properly  divided  into  inorganic  and  organic 
chemistry.  The  science  which  deals  with  matter  in  the  gross, 
and  seeks  to  explain  the  actions  and  reactions  taking  place 
between  inanimate  masses  of  matter,  without  reference  to  their 
ultimate  composition,  is  known  as  the  science  of  physics.  The 
science  which  deals  with  the  extramundane  universe  is  called 
astronomy,  and  is  strictly  speaking  a  branch  of  physics.  The 
science  which  deals  with  the  origin  and  evolution  of  the  world 
upon  which  we  live,  and  which  may  in  some  respects  be  regard- 
ed as  the  sister  of  astronomy,  is  called  geology.  The  science 
which  deals  with  the  present  configuration  of  the  earth 's 
surface  and  its  political  divisions  is  called  geography.  The 
science  which  deals  with  life  in  its  various  manifestations  is 
biology.  The  science  which  deals  with  the  ancient  and  main- 
ly extinct  life  of  the  globe  is  called  paleontology.  The  science 
which  deals  with  the  life  and  evolution  of  vegetable  forn^is, 
called  botany.  The  science  which  deals  with  the  evolution 
and  classification  of  animate  forms  of  life  is  called  zoology. 
And  there  are  innumerable  subdivisions  in  these  major  divis- 
ions of  the  sciences.  For  instance  the  botanist  who  devotes 
his  attention  to  the  study  of  the  mosses  is  known  as  a  bryol- 
ogist.  It  may  interest  you  in  passing  to  know  that  The  Bryol- 
ogist,  the  only  monthly  publication  in  America  devoted  to  the 
publication  of  papers  upon  the  mosses,  is  issued  here  in  Pitts- 
burgh, the  Editor  being  one  of  my  associates,  the  Curator  of 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  8 

Botany  in  the  Carnegie  Museum.  This  journal  is  one  of  a 
great  number,  which  are  annually  published  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  to  the  world  the  latest  truths  ascertained  by  botan- 
ical research. 

In  zoology  the  man  who  studies  mammals  is  known  as  a 
mammalogist;  the  man  who  studies  birds  is  an  ornithologist; 
the  man  who  studies  fishes  is  an  ichthyologist;  the  man  who 
studies  insects  is  an  entomologist.  My  friend,  Lord  Walsing- 
ham,in  an  address  some  years  ago,  stated  that  there  are  no 
less  than  three  millions  of  species  of  insects  in  the  world;  and 
so  it  has  come  about  that  the  science  of  entomology  has  been 
subdivided:  a  man  who  studies  beetles  is  a  coleopterist,  and 
the  science  for  which  he  stands  is  coleopterology;  the  man 
who  studies  butterflies  and  moths  is  a  lepidopterist,  and  his 
science  is  lepidopterology.  I  will  not  weary  you.  There  are 
recognized  today  a  thousand  or  more  different  branches  of  sci- 
entific research. 

Another  valid  distinction  is  between  pure  and  applied 
science.  Pure  science  is  knowledge  sought  for  its  own  sake, 
without  reference  to  any  use  which  may  ultimately  be  made 
of  it.  Applied  science,  on  the  other  hand,  involves  the  use  of 
ascertained  truth  in  such  a  way  as  to  promote  inventions  and 
the  arts.  The  student  of  physics,  for  instance,  may  devote  him- 
self, as  did  my  former  colleague,  Dr.  Samuel  P.  Langley,  to 
ascertaining  the  laws  which  govern  the  levitation  of  bodies 
heavier  than  air,  and  in  stating  in  the  form  of  mathematical 
formulae  the  amount  of  energy  which  is  requisite  to  propel  a 
slanting  plane  against  the  air  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  lift  up- 
ward a  given  weight.  The  Wright  brothers,  taking  the  results 
of  Langley 's  observations  originally  published  by  the  Univeftsi- 
ty  of  Pittsburgh,  and  applying  the  theoretical  knowledge  acquir- 
ed, succeeded  in  producing  an  aeroplane  which  flies,  as  Langley 
himself  afterwards  did.  We  must  not  forget  that  since  Lang- 
ley's  death  Glenn  H.  Curtiss  has  made  successful  flights  in  Pro- 
fessor Langley 's  aeroplane.  This  illustration  serves  to  show 
the  distinction  between  pure  and  applied  science. 

I  come  now  to  the  theme,  upon  which  it  has  been  announced 


4  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

that  I  would  speak  to  you  today,  that  is  the  place  which  is 
held  by  Germany  in  science.  I  am  moved  to  this  because  for 
many  years  I  have  inwardly  revolted  against  the  abject  ac- 
quiescence on  the  part  of  multitudes  of  Americans  in  the  be- 
lief, which  has  been  sedulously  cultivated,  that  so-called  '  'Ger- 
man science' '  may  justly  claim  leadership,  and  that  young  men 
in  order  to  finish,  and  thoroughly  round  out  an  education  should 
be  sent  to  German  Universities.  While  I  shall  not  attempt 
in  what  I  say  to  withhold  honor  where  honor  is  due,  and  while 
I  am,  I  trust,  entirely  too  magnanimous  to  minimize  or  detract 
from  the  intellectual  efforts  of  those  who  have  searched  with 
success  for  truth  in  any  land  or  clime,  and  love  to  think  of  the 
community  of  scientific  men  as  constituting  a  republic,  like  that 
of  letters,  which  gathers  into  its  fold  the  seekers  for  truth  in 
all  nations,  I  cannot  fail  before  this  audience  to  express  my 
deep-rooted  conviction  that  for  at  least  fifty  years  a  gullible 
world  has  been  stuffed  with  more  or  less  mistaken  ideas  as  to 
German  achievements  in  the  field  of  science. 

Since  in  the  limits  of  a  brief  address  like  this  I  cannot  go 
deeply  into  the  subject,  I  am  going  to  rapidly  point  out  a  few 
facts  for  the  purpose  of  showing  you  how  much  has  been  ac- 
complished by  men  who  lived  and  wrought  outside  of  Teuton- 
ia  and  how  comparatively  small,  in  reality,  have  been  German 
achievements  in  many  important  fields. 

Let  us  take  up  the  science  of  Mathematics,  which  deals  with 
quantity,  whether  expressed  in  number  or  form.  The  science 
of  pure  numbers,  or  algebra,  as  its  name  implies,  had  at  first 
its  most  striking  development  among  the  Arabs,  who  taught 
it  in  the  schools  of  Bagdad  and  other  centers.  It  was  brought 
to  Spain  by  the  Moors,  and  by  them  was  transmitted  to  the 
races  of  western  Europe,  to  be  refined  and  amplified  in  later 
times.  Now  who  were  those  who  effected  this  later  develop- 
ment? One  of  the  greatest  names  in  this  connection  is  that  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton.  He  in  vented  the  calculus.  He  was  followed  by 
Leibnitz,  a  German.  A  long  and  bitter  controversy  arose  in  this 
connection,  some  claiming  that  the  work  of  Leibnitz  was  done 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  5 

without  the  knowledge  of  the  prior  work  of  Isaac  Newton,  oth- 
ers taking  a  less  favorable  view  of  the  labors  of  Leibnitz,  who  it 
was  claimed  had  "pirated"  the  work  of  the  great  Englishman. 
Another  great  name  in  pure  mathematics  is  that  of  Pascal,  the 
Frenchman,  one  of  the  most  precocious  intellects  of  all  the  ages, 
who  at  seventeen  brought  out  his  work  on  conic  sections,  and 
somewhat  later  invented  the  calculus  of  probabilities,  upon 
which  in  part  all  the  work  of  our  modern  insurance  companies 
is  founded.  The  system  of  computing  by  means  of  logarithms, 
indispensable  in  engineering  practice  whether  on  land  or  sea, 
was  invented  by  Napier,  an  Englishman,  and  in  one  of  its  forms 
by  Briggs,  another  Englishman.  While  Germans  have  suc- 
cessfully used  mathematical  methods  in  research,  I  venture  to 
make  the  claim  that  the  science  of  mathematics  in  its  most 
advanced  stages  reflects  the  genius  and  application  of  men, 
who  almost  without  exception  were  not  Germans,  and  certainly 
none  of  whom  were  Prussians.  Among  the  many  applications 
of  mathematical  science  let  us  not  in  this  connection  forget 
that  Germans  universally  employ  the  metric  system  of  weights 
and  measures,  which  is  strictly  a  French  invention,  and  com- 
pute the  distances  marched  by  their  armies  in  meters,  and 
sell  their  beer  in  Munich  and  Berlin  by  the  liter. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  science  of  Physics,  which  deals  with 
matter  and  the  various  forms  of  energy  resident  in  it,  and 
therefore  treats  of  gravity,  sound,  light,  heat,  magnetism, 
electricity,  and  radio-kinematics. 

Leaving  out  of  sight  the  work  of  the  ancients,  and  com- 
ing down  to  more  modern  times,  the  historic  evolution  of  this 
science  recalls  the  names  of  William  Gilbert,  the  Englishman 
who  in  A.D.  1600  published  his  work  on  magnetism;  of  Torri- 
celli,  the  Italian,  whose  experiments  on  the  air  led  to  the  in- 
vention of  the  barometer;  of  Boyle  in  England  and  Mariotte 
in  France,  who  studied  the  laws  controlling  the  pressure  and 
volume  of  gases;  of  Newton,  whose  discovery  and  statement 
of  the  law  of  gravity  was  epoch-making,  and  whose  optical 
researches  were  scarcely  less  brilliant;  of  Descartes,  the  French 
philosopher,  who  stated  the  laws  governing  the  refraction  of 


6  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

light;  of  Huyghens,  the  Dutchman,  who  greatly  advanced 
the  science  of;  optics,  to  which  the  immortal  Galileo,  an  Ital- 
ian, had  already  contributed  much.  The  invention  of  achro- 
matic lenses  and  of  the  reflecting  telescope  were  advances 
with  which  Germans  had  little,  if  anything,  to  do.  The  work 
of  our  Franklin,,  of  .Cavendish,  Coulomb,  Galvani,  and  Volta 
in  the  field  of  electricity;  of  Davy,  Rumford,  Carnot,  and 
Joule  in  thermodynamics,  the  confirmation  by  Young  and 
Fresnel  of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light;  the  demonstration 
that  by  the  spectrum  of  incandescent  bodies  it  is  possible  to 
determine  their -composition,  which  was  achieved  by  Dr.  Dav- 
id Alter,  a  physician  of  Allegheny  County,  years  before 
Kirchfyoff,  the  German,  announced  the  same  observation,  al- 
though Alter 's  papers  had  been  translated  and  published  in 
Germany;  the  experiments  of  Faraday,  Oersted,  and  Joseph 
Henry,  of  Draper,  Langley,  Rowland,  and  J.  J.  Thompson,  of 
Clerk-Maxwell,  Sir  William  Ramsey,  Henri  Becquerel  and 
Marconi,  all  represent  forward  strides  in  physical  science  of 
enormous  importance  to  the  world.  None  of  these  names  are 
those  of  Germans.  The  only  really  important  contributions 
to  the  science  of  pure  physics  made  by  Germans  are  attribut- 
able to  Clausius  of  Bonn,  who  shares  with  Rankine  and 
Thomson,  Scotchmen,  the  honor  of  placing  the  science  of  ther- 
modynamics upon  a  scientific  foundation;  to  Frauenhofer,  who 
discovered  the  lines  in  the  spectrum,  which  bear  his  name;  to 
Kirchhoff,  who  applied  and  amplified  the  discoveries  of  Alter; 
to  Helmholtz,  who  wrote  upon  the  physiological  effects  of 
sounpV;  to  Dr.  Walther  Nernst,  whose  work  upon  electrical 
incandescence  is  well  known;  and  to  Roentgen,  whose  name 
is  associated  with  the  rays,  the  utility  of  which  in  producing 
skiagraphs  he  demonstrated.  The  actual  contributions  of 
German  thinkers  to  the  science  of  pure  physics  are,  in  com- 
parison with  those  made  by  the  rest  of  the  world,  exceeding- 
ly few.  The  great  names  in  physics,  which  are  German, 
may  be  counted  upon  the  fingers  of  one  man's  hands. 

When  it  comes  to  the  practical  application  of  physical  sci- 
ence in  art  and  industry  through  mechanical  processes  and  in- 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  7 

ventions,  the  fact  that  leadership  does  not  belong  to  Germany 
is  so  evident  that  the  contrary  claim  becomes  laughable.  Let 
us  glance  at  a  few  of  the  things  which  give  our  modern  civil- 
ization its  form  and  its  color. 

The  steam-engine  was  made  a  useful  machine  by  Watt, 
a  Scotchman. 

The  locomotive  was  made  a  mechanical  success  by  Steph- 
enson,  an  Englishman. 

The  steamship  was  invented  by  Fulton,  an  American. 

The  first  gas-engine  was  designed  by  a  Frenchman. 

The  bicycle,  as  it  exists  today,  is  also  a  French  invention, 
improved  and  developed  by  American  and  English  mechanics 
and  artizans. 

The  automobile,  as  we  know  it,  is  the  product  of  French, 
Italian,  and  Anglo-Saxon  brains,  the  basic  inventions  being 
French  in  their  origin.  The  subject  is  too  vast  to  go  into  at 
length,  but  if  the  world  had  waited  for  a  German  to  produce 
such  a  thing  as  the  automobile,  it  would  have  waited  beyond 
the  present  hour,  and  the  thing  would  not  yet  be. 

The  dynamo  is  based  upon  the  discovery  of  inductive  elec- 
trical energy  by  Michael  Faraday  in  1831.  In  its  present 
forms  and  applications  to  use  it  represents  the  labors  of  a 
host  of  men,  but  it  is  no  perversion  of  truth  to  say  that  the 
principal  steps  in  its  evolution  have  been  brought  about  by 
Americans,  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  and  Italians. 

The  development  of  turbine  water-wheels  almost  wholly 
reflects  the  skill  of  Frenchmen,  and  Americans. 

Steam  turbines  are  the  product  of  the  thought  of  De  Laval, 
a  Swede,  C.  A.  Parsons,  an  Englishman,  and  Dr.  Curtis  of 
New  York. 

The  air-brake  was  invented  by  our  fellow-townsman, 
George  Westinghouse. 

The  screw-propeller  was  invented  by  a  Scotchman  named 
Weldon,  but  its  successful  employment  to  drive  vessels 
through  the  water  was  left  to  John  Ericsson,  a  Swede,  resi- 
dent in  the  United  States.  Do  not  forget  in  passing  that  this 
same  John  Ericsson  was  the  inventor  of  the  '  'Monitor ",  the 


8  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

first  iron-clad  war  vessel  provided  with  a  movable  gun-turret, 
and  that  he  revolutionized  by  this  invention  the  art  of  marine 
warfare. 

The  first  successful  submarine  was  invented  by  R.  M. 
Holland  of  New  Jersey. 

The  application  of  electricity  to  traction  purposes  is  al- 
most altogether  the  product  of  American  thinking  and  experi- 
ment, and  is  associated  with  the  names  of  Sprague,  Elihu 
Thomson,  Brush,  Houston,  Westinghouse,  and  Tesla. 

The  telegraph  is  the  invention  of  Morse,  an  American. 

The  laying  of  the  first  transoceanic  cable  was  due  to  the 
efforts  of  Cyrus  Field,  still  another  citizen  of  the  United 
States. 

The  telephone,  as  everybody  knows,  became  a  practical 
commercial  possibility  as  the  result  of  the  researches  of  Alex- 
ander Graham  Bell  and  Thomas  Edison,  both  citizens  of  this 
country. 

The  graphophone  in  its  various  applications  reflects 
American  ingenuity. 

Wireless  telegraphy  is  forever  associated  with  the  name 
of  Marconi,  an  Italian,  though  in  its  later  development,  it 
owes  something  to  a  former  colleague  of  mine,  Reginald  A. 
Fessenden,  who  for  a  while  taught  electrical  engineering  in 
our  University. 

Balloons  were  invented  by  the  brothers  Montgolfier, 
Frenchmen.  They  used  hot  air,  generated  by  burning 
chopped  straw,  to  fill  the  bag,  which  was  made  of  paper.  A 
few  months  later  Mons.  Charles  of  Paris  inflated  a  balloon  of 
oiled  silk  with  hydrogen  gas,  and  in  1783  made  three  success- 
ful flights.  The  first  dirigible  balloons  were  built  in  France  by 
the  brothers  Tessandier  and  made  slow  but  successful  flights. 
Then  came  Santos  Dumont,  a  young  Brazilian,  who  in  1901 
flew  in  his  dirigible  around  the  Eiffel  Tower.  Later  he  was 
followed  by  Count  Zeppelin,  the  German,  whose  exploits  are 
familiar  to  you. 

I  have  already  alluded  to  the  labors  of  Professor  Samuel 
P.  Langley,  which  paved  the  way  for  the  invention  of  the  aer- 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  9 

oplane.  The  great  fleets  of  aerial  vessels  which  sweep  the 
skies  today  may  be  said  to  be  the  outcome  of  the  thought  of  a 
former  Pittsburgher,  and  in  this  connection  let  me  remind  you 
that  the  first  transcontinental  flight  in  an  aeroplane  was  ac- 
complished by  Calbraith  Perry  Rogers,  a  Pittsburgher,  whom  in 
his  infancy  I  remember  once  to  have  carried  to  his  home  *  'pick- 
a-back"  through  a  snow-storm,  little  dreaming  as  I  turned  the 
rosy-cheeked  boy  over  to  his  mother,  who  met  us  at  the  door, 
that  I  had  been  bearing  on  my  shoulders  a  child  who  later  "on 
the  wings  of  the  wind"  would  fly  across  the  continent  from  sea 
to  sea. 

Thus  far  I  have  been  thinking  mainly  of  devices  intend- 
ed to  effect  transportation  of  masses  or  of  force  from  point  to 
point  in  space.  Let  us  turn  to  another  set  of  instrumentali- 
ties, which  in  many  respects  are  no  less  important. 

'  'Wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ?' '  This  important  ques- 
tion was  answered  by  Arkwright,  an  Englishman,  who  invent- 
ed the  power-loom.  A  close  study  of  the  basic  improvements 
in  the  art  of  weaving  by  machinery,  which  enables  a  peasant 
today  to  wear  clothes  which  six  centuries  ago  a  king  could  not 
afford,  reveals  the  fact  that  the  inventions  which  are  domi- 
nant in  this  industry  are  the  product  of  the  ingenuity  of  Amer- 
ican, English,  and  French  mechanics.  Eli  Whitney  of  Westbor- 
ough,  Massachusetts,  invented  the  cotton-gin.  Without  it, 
how  small  would  be  the  production  of  cotton  goods!  The 
weaving  of  damask-patterns  in  linen,  the  w  saving  of  velvet, 
and  of  velvet  tapestries  are  arts,  which  were  chiefly  devel- 
oped in  France.  It  always  interests  me  to  recall  the  fact  that 
King  William  III  of  England  in  1698  invited  one  of  my  own 
Huguenot  kinsmen.  Louis  Crommelin,  then  a  refugee  in  Hol- 
land, to  repair  to  Ireland  to  establish  the  linen  industry  in 
that  country,  made  him  a  grant  of  lands  in  Antrim,  at  Lis- 
burn,  promised  to  pay  him  eight  percent  upon  the  ,£10,000 
sterling  which  Crommelin  agreed  to  put  into  the  industry,  and 
made  him  '  'National  Manager  of  the  Linen  Trade. ' '  Some  of 
you  know  the  part  played  in  commerce  by  Irish  linens  today. 
Germany  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  development. 


10  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 


From  cloth  I  pass  in  my  thought  to  sewfnig.  You  all  know 
that  the  sewing  machine  is  strictly  an  American  invention. 

Machinery  for  the  manufacture  of  shoes  is  almost  all  of 
it  the  product  of  American  ingenuity,  and  most  of  it  is  made 
in  the  United  States. 

The  type- writer  is  an  American  invention.  Adding  ma- 
chines, such  as  are  used  today  in  banks  and  counting-houses, 
reflect  the  cunning  skill  and  concentrated  efforts  of  American 
machinists. 

We  cheerfully  grant  to  Guttenberg,  an  Alsatian,  the  cred- 
it for  inventing  the  process  of  printing  by  movable  types 
some  years  before  Columbus  discovered  America,  but  the  great 
power-presses  of  today,  which  with  lightning  rapidity  roll  off 
of  their  cylinders  the  daily  papers,  and  books  by  the  millions, 
are  the  result  of  the  ingenuity  of  Americans  and  Englishmen 
for  the  most  part.  In  this  connection  the  name  of  Robert  Hoe 
of  New  York  stands  forth  pre-eminent. 

Harvesting  machinery  is  American  in  its  origin.  Think 
of  Cyrus  McCormick. 

But  I  might  go  on  indefinitely  along  these  lines,  and  only 
desire  to  say  before  closing  my  remarks  about  the  applica- 
tion of  physical  laws  in  the  field  of  industrial  invention  that 
the  manufacture  of  machinery  capable  of  doing  its  work 
with  precision  is  one  of  the  most  important  things  in  our  mod- 
ern life.  Any  one  who  has  read  the  life  of  Watt  and  of  Steph- 
enson  realizes  the  difficulties  they  had  to  contend  with  in  get- 
ting true  surfaces,  flat  or  curved,  in  the  machinery  they  in- 
vented. The  standardizing  of  parts  is  also  an  important  mat- 
ter. To  American  mechanics  is  due  much  of  the  precision 
attainable  today  with  the  help  of  machine-tools.  Planers, 
lathes,  drills,  punches,  shapers,  slotting  machines,  as  used  the 
world  over  in  the  best  practice,  are  largely  the  product  of 
English,  but  more  particularly  of  American  brains.  At  the 
close  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  the  German  Government 
gave  orders  amounting  to  millions  of  dollars  to  an  American 
firm  to  set  up  machinery  for  the  manufacture  of  rifles  with 
standardized  parts,  and  to  send  over  men  to  instruct  the  Ger- 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  11 

man  workmen  in  their  use.  By  the  by,  the  same  Eli  Whitney, 
who  invented  the  cotton-gin,  was  the  first  to  originate  the  mak- 
ing of  fire-arms  with  standardized  parts  in  the  arsenals  of  the 
United  States,  for  which  he  received  the  thanks  of  the 
Government.  Machinery  for  threading  screws  capable  of 
detecting  errors  the  twenty-thousanths  of  an  inch  are  the  pro- 
duct of  American  machine-shops,  and  are  in  common  use. 

Let  us  pass  from  physics  to  chemistry.  The  Germans 
have  perhaps  done  more  in  chemistry  than  in  any  other  branch 
of  science,  and  deserve  recognition  for  the  applications  of 
chemical  knowledge  which  they  have  made  along  certain 
lines.  There  are  some  great  names  among  those  who  have 
belonged  to  the  army  of  German  chemists,  such  as  Brandt, 
Glaus,  Stromeyer,  Klaproth,  Ostwald,  and  van't  Hoff,  neither 
of  the  two  latter,  however,  being  in  fact  Germans,  the  first 
having  been  born  in  Russia,  the  latter  in  Holland,  but  both 
having  held  chairs  in  German  universities.  Nevertheless  the 
greatest  names  in  chemistry  are  not  these.  Contrast  with 
them  the  names  of  the  great  founders  of  the  science:  in  Eng- 
land, Boyle,  Priestley,  Dalton,  Cavendish,  Wollaston,  and  in 
later  times  such  men  as  Lord  Rayleigh,  and  Sir  William  Ram- 
say; in  France,  Lavoisier,  Laurent,  Ampere,  Gay-Lussac,  Du- 
mas, and  recently  the  Curies;  in  Sweden,  Berzelius,  nomen 
venerabile!  in  Italy,  Avogadro  and  Cannizaro. 

While  cheerfully  admitting  that  German  chemists  have 
done  noble  work,  they  were  nevertheless  building  for  the 
most  part  on  foundations  already  laid  for  them  by  others  who 
were  not  of  German  origin. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  in  these  days  about  Germany's 
supremacy  in  the  manufacture  of  dyes  derived  from  coal-tars, 
and  the  story  of  the  invention  of  synthetic  indigo  has  been 
so  often  told  that  it  is  becoming  threadbare;  but  let  me  re- 
mind you  that  the  distillation  of  coal-tars  and  benzene  had  its 
origin  in  England,  and  though  anilin,  produced  through  the 
reaction  of  nitric  acid  with  benzene,  was  first  discovered  by 
the  German  chemist,  Unverdorben,  in  1826,  it  was  not  until 
W.  H.  Perkin,  an  Englishman,  in  1856  had  derived  from  it  the 


12  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

color  mauve,  also  known  as  Per  kin's  purple,  that  the  discovery 
of  anilin  came  to  have  commercial  importance. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  chemistry  of  iron  and  steel.  You 
who  are  before  me  know  that  the  great  names  in  this  field 
are  not  principally  those  of  Germans.  Germany  has  no  name 
to  compare  with  those  of  Bessemer,  Siemens,  and  Martin,  Eng- 
lishmen, and  Mushet,  the  Frenchman.  I  pass  over  the  host  of 
great  names  I  might  cite  in  the  metallurgy  of  iron  and  steel, 
which  bear  not  upon  its  chemical  but  mechanical  processes. 

The  production  of  aluminum  by  electrolytic  methods,  which 
has  grown  to  be  a  great  industry  had  its  origin  in  America. 
It  is  indelibly  associated  with  the  name  of  Charles  M.  Hall, 
who  used  often  to  occupy  a  pew  in  the  church  of  which  I  was 
the  pastor,  while  with  the  help  of  my  dear  friends,  Capt.  Al- 
fred E.  Hunt  and  his  partner,  Mr.  George  H.  Clapp,  he  was 
working  out  the  utilization  of  his  discoveries  in  a  practical  way. 

The  discovery  of  carborundum,  an  abrasive  invaluable  in 
the  arts,  which  has  almost  entirely  replaced  emery,  was  made 
here  in  Pittsburgh  by  Edward  Goodrich  Acheson,  whose  ex- 
periments were  carried  on  in  a  shed,  which  he  always  kept 
locked,  and  which  stood  on  Fifth  Avenue  near  the  site  of  the 
present  Hotel  Schenley.  He  used  electric  power  which  he  ob- 
tained from  the  lines  of  the  street  railway  passing  the  spot. 
Like  Hall  he  often  came  to  the  church  at  the  corner  of  Belle- 
field  Avenue,  but  he  never  told  me  what  he  was  doing  in  his 
shed  near  by;  and  I  only  came  to  know  about  it  afterwards 
when  the  great  plant  for  the  manufacture  of  carborundum  was 
established  at  Niagara  Falls. 

Photography  is  an  art  which  combines  the  application  of 
the  laws  of  physics  with  the  results  of  chemical  research.  It 
had  its  origin  in  France  and  is  forever  linked  with  the  name 
of  Daguerre. 

But  I  must  hasten  forward. 

Let  us  take  a  passing  glance  at  the  science  of  astronomy, 
the  most  ancient  of  the  sciences,  the  most  aristocratic,  the  most 
expensive,  and  the  least  capable  of  directly  serving  the  needs 
of  humanity,  save  as  it  helps  to  make  us  humble  and  feel  our 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  18 

utter  insignificance  in  the  universe. 

There  are  a  few  great  names  in  astronomical  science  which 
were  borne  by  men  in  Germany,  all  of  whom  are  now  long 
dead  and  turned  to  dust.  We  can  never  forget  Kepler,  Arge- 
lander,  Bessel,  Hansen,  and  Roemer.  Great  as  are  these  names, 
how  much  more  glorious  is  the  galaxy  of  names  which  follows: 
in  England,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  theHershels,  LordRosse,  Airy, 
Adams,  Halley,  Rutherfurd  and  Sir  John  Huggins;  in  France, 
Arago,  Cassini,  Delaunay,  Gassendi,  Lagrange,  Le  Verrier, 
and  the  greatest  of  them  all,  Laplace;  in  Italy,  Galileo  Galilei, 
Schiapparelli,  Secchi;  in  Poland  Copernicus,  who  was  educated 
at  the  University  of  Bologna  in  Italy,  but  is  buried  in  Prus- 
sia, (which  by  the  way,  makes  a  specialty  of  burying  the  good 
and  great) ;  in  Russia,  the  Struves,  Backlund,  and  Belopolsky; 
in  the  United  States  Young,  Langley,  Newcomb,  Harkness, 
Burnham,  Keeler,  Pickering,  Peters,  Hale,  Campbell,  and 
our  own  Schlesinger. 

When  it  comes  to  the  tools  which  astronomers  use  you  know 
that  the  biggest  and  the  best  telescopes  in  the  world  have 
been  made  in  America,  and  that  there  are  not  anywhere  in 
Europe  such  telescopes  as  those  designed  and  erected  by  Alvan 
Clarke  for  the  Lick,  the  Yerkes,  and  other  great  observatories. 
When  the  astronomers  of  the  world  need  good  spectroscopes, 
or  photographic  lenses  they  send  here  to  Pittsburgh  to  "uncle 
John  Brashear' '  to  make  them.  When  Prof.  Max  Wolf  of  Heidel- 
berg a  few  years  ago  wanted  an  exceptionally  fine  set  of  len- 
ses with  which  to  do  a  piece  of  exceptionally  fine  photograph- 
ic work,  he  commissioned  Dr.  Brashear  to  make  them. 

Turning  from  physics,  chemistry,  and  astronomy,  to  geo- 
graphy, I  may  say  that  in  the  field  of  geographic  discovery 
Germany  has  done  absolutely  so  little  that  it  is  hardly 
worth  mentioning.  Germany  came  into  the  field  too  late  to  be 
of  much  use.  She  makes  good  maps,  and  her  teachers  have 
written  some  good  text-books  dealing  with  the  science,  but 
her  chief  function  in  geography  has  been  latterly  to  fool  with 
existing  political  boundaries,  which  her  neighbors  naturally 
do  not  like.  Germany  did  not  discover  America,  she  was  not 


14  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

the  first  to  circumnavigate  the  globe,  she  did  not  discover  the 
route  to  China  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  she  did  not 
discover  either  the  North  or  the  South  Pole.  She  has  sent  out 
a  great  many  travellers,  who  have  wandered  hither  and  thith- 
er, and  reported  their  observations,  men  like  Humboldt,  and 
Earth,  and  Schweinfurth,  who  have  botanized,  and  collected 
bugs,  and  described  the  aspects  of  nature  in  the  lands  they 
have  visited,  but  whose  additions  to  real  geographical  science 
have  been  for  the  most  part  rather  negligible. 

In  geology  the  work  of  Germans  is  not  much  more  im- 
portant than  it  has  been  in  geography.  Again  her  professors 
have  compiled  most  excellent  text-books,  and  have  laborious- 
ly constructed  many  charts  and  maps,  which  are  useful  in  high- 
schools,  but  outside  of  her  own  little  Middle- European  domain 
German  geologists  have  done  nothing  which  deserves  mention 
as  epoch-making.  Werner  of  Freiburg,  who  died  in  1817,  has 
been  styled  by  Germans  '  'the  founder  of  scientific  geology, " 
and  it  is  true  that  his  influence  as  a  teacher  led  not  a  few  to 
address  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  science,  but  his  views 
embodied  in  the  so-called  "Neptunian  Theory "  have  long  ago 
been  discarded  as  rubbish.  My  dear  old  friend,  Dr.  Suess  of 
Vienna,  who  died  a  few  years  ago,  has  given  us  in  his  great 
work,  "Das  Antlitz  der  Erde"  a  fine  resume'of  what  is  known 
by  geologists,  and  it  has  recently  been  translated  into  French 
by  another  friend  of  mine,  Emmanuel  de  Margerie,  but  it  is 
the  result  of  reading  and  reflection,  rather  than  of  original 
research. 

Geology  is  so  young  a  science,  and  the  most  important 
advances  in  it  have  been  made  so  recently,  that  to  mention 
the  names  which  bulk  largest  in  it  would  compell  me  to  speak 
of  many  of  my  contemporaries,  and  raise  distinctions,  which 
might  seem  invidious.  I  therefore  content  myself  with  speak- 
ing of  only  a  few  of  the  great  men  of  the  past,  and  remind  you 
that  Germany,  has  few  names  to  be  compared  with  those  of 
Lyell,  Murchison,  Geikie,  Elie  de  Beaumont,  Charpentier, 
Louis  Agassiz,  Dawson,  LeConte,  Hayden,  Powell  and  Tscher- 
nychev.  The  greatest  geologists  are  living  men,  and  some 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  15 

of  the  greatest  of  them  are  alive  today  in  England,  France, 
and  the  United  States. 

What  I  have  said  of  geology  is  in  large  part  true  also  of 
paleontology.  What  names  can  Germany  call  which  may  fitly  be 
compared  with  those  of  Cuvier,  Gaudry,  Lartet,  Filhol,  andBoule, 
in  France;  of  Sir  Richard  Owen,  Thomas  H.  Huxley,  C.  W. 
Andrews  and  Henry  and  Arthur  Smith  Woodward,  in  England ; 
of  Leidy,  Marsh,  and  Cope  among  the  recently  deceased  in  the 
United  States,  not  to  speak  of  the  small  army  of  living  Paleon- 
tologists in  America,  a  score  of  whom  are  doing  work  today 
which  is  being  equalled  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  certainly 
not  in  Prussia.  The  great  compendium  of  the  late  Dr.  Zittel 
of  Munich  falls  into  the  class  of  text-books,  of  which  German 
professors  have  prepared  so  many  in  all  the  sciences,  but  it 
does  not  illustrate  to  any  great  extent  original  research  or  in- 
vestigation. It  is  the  fruit  of  erudition,  but  nothing  more. 

Coming  now  to  the  biological  sciences  I  may  say  that  the 
field  is  so  vast  that  to  do  justice  to  the  subject  would  involve 
far  more  time  than  is  at  my  command,  and  I  can  only  attempt 
to  touch  lightly  upon  it. 

Who  bears  the  proud  title  of  '  'The  Father  of  Natural  His- 
tory* '  ?  It  is  borne  not  by  a  German,  but  by  a  Swede,  the  immor- 
tal Linnaeus.  Botany  and  Zoology  as  modern  sciences  date  from 
the  publication  of  the  Tenth  Edition  of  his  Sy sterna  Natura.  To 
him  we  are  indebted  for  the  binomial  system  of  nomenclature. 
He  laid  the  foundation  for  the  classification  of  all  living  things 
in  orders,  families,  genera,  species,  and  varieties.  It  is 
true  that  his  system  for  the  classification  of  plants,  known 
as  "The  Artificial  System",  has  been  superseded  by  "The 
Natural  System"  proposed  by  his  friend  Jussieu,  the  French 
botanist,  but,  in  spite  of  that,  he  still  stands  forth  as  the  great 
leader  and  founder  of  our  most  advanced  systematology. 

There  have  been  not  a  few  able  botanists  and  zoologists 
in  Germany,  and  science  owes  a  large  debt  to  their  labors,  but 
after  giving  them  all  the  credit  which  is  due  to  them,  how 
relatively  small  in  the  last  analysis  is  the  result  of  their  la- 
bors, when  contrasted  with  the  greater  labors  of  their  con  tern- 


16  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

poraries  in  other  lands. 

Let  me  take  up  the  science  of  ornithology  as  an  illustra- 
tion. What  work  ever  appeared  in  Germany  which  can  of 
one  moment  be  compared  with  Audubon's  Birds  of  America, 
Gould's  Birds,  Dresser's  Birds  of  Europe,  or  some  of  the  great 
monographs  which  in  the  past  fifty  years  have  issued  from 
British,  French, and  American  presses.  What  German  work 
may  be  put  alongside  of  Bowdler  Sharpens  Catalogue  of  the 
Birds  in  the  British  Museum.  I  recognize  the  value  of  the 
labors  of  Cabanis,  of  Reichenau  upon  the  Birds  of  Africa,  of 
the  writings  of  Hellmayr,  and  of  the  late  Count  von  Berlepsch, 
but  creditable  and  important  as  has  been  their  work,  it  is  al- 
together dwarfed  before  the  vaster  labors  of  the  scores  of  eager 
inquirers  in  other  lands  who  with  better  facilities  and  longer 
purses  have  led  the  race. 

Take  the  science  of  entomology.  Germany  has  made  val- 
uable contributions  to  it,  which  I,  as  an  entomologist,  am  the 
last  man  to  deny.  But  taking  all  the  literature  upon  my 
favorite  science  from  German  pens,  and  placing  it  against 
the  results  of  the  labors  of  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Belgians, 
Italians,  Russians,  Swedes,  Danes,  Dutchmen,  Spaniards,  Jap- 
anese, and  Americans,  how  really  small  in  amount,  and  how 
relatively  poor  in  appearance  it  is.  And  the  remarkable  thing 
in  some  of  the  later  and  more  pretentious  works  issued  from 
German  presses  is  the  fact  that  the  work  is  in  reality  not  the 
work  of  Germans.  As  an  illustration  let  me  cite  the  great 
Treatise  issued  in  Leipzig  entitled  "Die  Gross-Schmetterlinge 
der  Erde"  finely  illustrated,  intended  to  give  an  epitome  of 
all  the  species  of  butterflies  and  larger  moths  on  the  globe. 
The  text  is,  so  far  as  the  work  has  issued  from  the  press, 
principally  from  the  pens  of  such  men  as  Dr.  Aurivillius,  of 
Sweden,  and  Jordan  and  Warren  of  England. 

What  names  in  German  biological  science  can  compare 
with  those  of  Jussieu,  of  Bonpland,  Decandolle,  of  the  Hookers, 
or  of  Asa  Gray  in  botany?  With  those  of  Buff  on,  Cuvier,  Milne- 
Edwards,  Wallace,  Darwin,  Huxley,  and  E.  Perrier  in  zoolo- 
gy? We  are  not  oblivious  of  the  writings  of  Mendel,  of  Weiss- 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  17 

mann,  or  of  Hseckel;butif  the  writings  of  all  those  who  have 
labored  in  these  fields  in  other  lands  were  left  out  of  the  ac- 
count or  obliterated  there  would  be  no  science  worthy  of  the 
name  left,  either  in  botany  or  zoology.  Germany  has  "done 
its  bit",  but  set  against  what  has  been  done  by  scientific  in- 
vestigators in  other  lands  it  has  only  been  a  bit. 

A  word  as  to  medicine  and  surgery. 

If  we  except  certain  coal-tar  products,  you  will  discover 
that  the  bulk  of  the  curative  remedies  employed  in  medicine 
and  given  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  owe  their  discovery  and  use 
to  chemical  investigators  and  physicians  outside  of  Teutonia. 
Let  me  cite  quinine  as  an  illustration.  The  use  of  the  bark 
of  the  Cinchona  was  learned  from  the  Indians  by  the  early 
Spanish  settlers  of  South  America.  Sulphate  of  quinine  as 
an  alkaloid  was  first  separated  by  a  French  chemist  in  the 
early  part  of  the  last  century.  Its  manufacture  on  a  large 
scale  was  begun  by  Powers  &  Weightman  in  Philadelphia 
shortly  afterward.  Today  it  is  still  manufactured  to  a  larger  ex- 
tent in  the  United  States  than  in  any  other  country  on  the 
globe.  The  manufacture  of  drugs  and  medicines  in  this  coun- 
try is  one  of  its  great  and  important  industries,  and  so  far 
as  this  field  of  effort  is  concerned  Germany  can  claim  no 
superiority  over  us. 

Take  dentistry  as  a  branch  of  surgical  science.  The  Kaiser 
himself  and  all  other  crowned  heads  in  Europe  give  the  palm  to 
American  dentists.  '  'Amerikanischer  Zahn-Artzt' '  is  a  sign  you 
might  have  seen  anywhere  in  Germany  before  the  war,  and  the 
foremost  dental  school  in  America  is  located  in  Pittsburgh. 

Who  discovered  antiseptic  surgery?  Sir  Joseph  Lister, 
an  Englishman. 

Who  discovered  and  first  practised  anaesthesia?  Doctor 
Horace  Wells  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  a  dentist,  who  used 
nitrous  oxide;  Dr.  Morton,  of  Boston,  who  performed  surg- 
ical operations  with  success  upon  etherized  subjects;  and  Sir 
James  Simpson  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland,  who,  acting  upon  the 
suggestion  of  J.  P.  Flourens  of  Paris,  who  had  ascertained 
the  anaesthetic  property  of  chloroform,  employed  it  in 


18  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

midwifery  and  later  in  surgery. 

Vaccination  against  small-pox  is  due  to  Jenner,  an  Eng- 
lishman. 

In  this  connection  we  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  results 
of  the  remarkable  series  of  investigations  which  led  to  the 
classification  of  the  unicellular  plants,  known  as  bacteria  or 
bacilli,  and  the  changes  brought  about  by  their  presence  in 
organic  substances,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  toxins  and 
antitoxins.  The  great  names  in  bacteriology  are  those  of  Leeu- 
wenhoek,  a  Hollander;  Pasteur,  a  Frenchman;  Marshall  Ward, 
Duguid,  Burdon-Sanderson  and  Greenfield,  Englishmen; 
Metchnikoff,  a  Russian;  Ravenel  an  American;  Klebs,  Lref- 
fier,  Koch,  and  Ehrlich,  Germans.  Koch  had  the  honor  of 
discovering  the  bacillus  of  tuberculosis  and  of  cholera.  His 
claim  to  have  discovered  a  remedy  for  tuberculosis  was  after- 
wards disproved,  and  his  reputation  became  clouded. 

The  disco  very  that  malarial  fever,  so-called,  is  due  to  the 
presence  in  the  blood  of  the  patient  of  a  one-celled  animal  known 
as  Plasmodium  malaria&^which  is  introduced  into  the  circula- 
tion through  the  agency  of  a  species  of  mosquito  belonging  to 
the  genus  Anopheles,  and  the  kindred  discovery  that  yellow  fev- 
er is  produced  by  an  animal,  which  is  likewise  transmitted  by 
a  mosquito  belonging  to  the  genus  Stegomyia,and  the  further 
discovery  that  sleeping  sickness  and  various  deadly  diseases 
attacking  man  and  other  warm-blooded  animals  are  due  to 
protozoans  belonging  to  the  genus  Trypanosoma,  which  are 
communicated  by  flies,  are  among  the  more  recent  results  of 
highly  interesting  researches,  in  which  English,  French,  and 
especially  American  investigators  have  played  the  chief  role. 
As  a  practical  result  of  these  discoveries  it  seems  likely 
that  vast  regions  hitherto  regarded  as  uninhabitable  by  men 
may  be  reclaimed  to  their  use.  The  Campagna  about  Rome, 
the  climate  of  which  was  deemed  deadly,  is  rapidly  being  made 
habitable,  and  its  fertile  soil  is  being  made  to  bear  crops,  the 
systematic  disinfection  of  its  mosquito-haunted  pools  by  the 
simple  use  of  coal-oil  applied  to  them  having  brought  about  a 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  19 

wonderful  change  in  conditions.  The  building  of  the  Panama 
canal  was  made  possible  by  the  discoveries  to  which  I  have 
alluded.  Where  in  the  days  of  DeLesseps  men  died  like  flies  by 
scores  and  hundreds,  under  Dr.  Gorgas  men  lived  as  healthily 
as  they  would  here  in  Pittsburgh. 

But  I  hear  some  of  you  ask  '  'What  about  military  science"  ? 
Well,  it  was  Mirabeau  who  said  that  'The  national  industry 
of  Prussia  is  war. "  But  Sir  Roger  Bacon,  an  Englishman, 
invented  gunpowder.  A  Swiss  chemist  invented  gun-cotton. 
The  bayonet  is  French  in  its  origin.  Cannon  were  first  used 
by  the  English  against  the  Scotch  in  1327,  and  by  the  French 
against  the  Flemish  in  1338.  Cannon  were  at  first  cast  hollow, 
and  the  balls  were  made  of  stone.  Later  they  were  cast  solid 
and  bored  out,  but  while  this  improved  their  appearance  it 
lessened  their  strength.  General  T.  J.  Rodman,  Chief  of  ord- 
nance of  the  U.  S.  Army,  whose  wife,  by  the  way,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Black,  one  of  the  early  professors  in 
the  University  of  Pittsburgh,  reverted  to  the  method  of  cast- 
ing cannon  hollow  over  a  core  which  was  cooled  by  running 
water.  The  work  was  done  here  in  Pittsburgh,  and  the  big 
guns  used  in  the  civil  war,  known  as  "Rodman  guns/'  which 
won  their  way  to  victory,  were  mostly  cast  at  the  old  "Fort 
Pitt  Foundry, ' '  belonging  to  the  firm  of  Knapp  &  Wade.  Can- 
non are  now  "built  up"  as  you  know,  rings  of  steel  being 
successively  shrunk  around  the  barrel-tube  within.  The  first 
built-up  guns  were  made  by  Chambers &Tread  well,  Americans, 
and  by  Blakely,  an  Englishmen.  Breech-loading  devices  are 
quite  old  in  their  origin,  and  go  back  to  a  time  when  there 
were  no  Prussians  to  use  them.  The  rifling  of  small  gun- 
barrels  we  must  allow  to  be  a  Teutonic  invention,  the  claim  to 
have  first  employed  it  being  in  dispute  between  Gaspard 
Kollner  of  Vienna,  who  is  said  to  have  rifled  gun-barrels  in 
1498,  and  Augustus  Kotter  of  Nuremberg,  who  is  said  to  have 
practiced  the  art  from  1500  to  1520.  It  is  proper  to  state  that 
the  invention  was  originally  intended  to  enable  the  barrel  to  be 
more  easily  cleaned,  and  not  to  improve  the  trajectory.  Ma- 
chinery for  turning  gun-stocks  and  other  irregular  shapes 


20  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

is  the  product  of  the  genius  of  Thomas  Blanchard,  an  Ameri- 
can, who  patented  the  device^the  year  1820.  The  first  suc- 
cessful machine-gun  was  invented  by  Dr.Gatlingof  Indian- 
apolis, Indiana,  but  is  replaced  to-day  by  others  among  which 
is  the  Lewis  gun,  an  American  invention,  now  used  by  the 
British  Army. 

Rapid-firing  field-guns,  and  marine  guns  bear  the  names 
of  Hotchkiss,  and  Maxim,  Americans;  of  Nordenfeldt,  a 
Swede,  of  Armstrong,  an  Englishman.  These  were  later  fol- 
lowed by  Herr  Krupp  of  Essen. 

The  science  of  war!  That  is  a  science,  which  I  suppose  we 
must  cultivate  when  madmen  get  the  reins  of  power  into  their 
hands,  and  inflamed  by  jealousy,  greed,  and  hate,  set  about 
crushing  every  man  who  stands  in  their  pathway. 

It  is  not  a  noble  science,  nor  is  war  a  noble  art.  We  resort 
to  it  as  a  last  dire  necessity,  as  we  resort  to  the  use  of  clubs, 
stones,  and  pistols  when  a  mad  dog  is  loose  in  the  streets.  Wars 
of  conquest  undertaken  by  ambitious  and  greedy  men  and  races 
deserve  in  this  age  to  be  looked  upon  as  nothing  more  than 
murder,  and  '  'glorious  war/ '  in  the  case  of  those  who  begin  it 
should  find  an  end  for  them  in  a  slip-noose,  or  the  electric  chair. 
When  rulers  seek  to  do  God's  will  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven,  the  art  of  war  will  cease.  But  as  long  as  the  devil 
sits  incarnate  on  earthly  thrones  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to 
fight  him  with  his  own  weapons,  and  when  we  have  to  do  it, 
it  ought  to  be  with  all  our  might,  and  soul,  and  strength. 

Some  one  asks  "What  about  the  metaphysical  sciences 
and  the  science  of  ethics?"  Germany  once  had  some  great  phil- 
osophers and  ethical  teachers:  but  they  are  all  dead.  Luther 
is  dead,  Kant  is  dead.  The  Germany  which  sent  to  Pennsyl- 
vania a  Zinzendorf ,  a  Zeisberger,  and  a  Heckewelder  to  preach 
the  Gospel  of  good-will  and  brotherly  kindness  to  the  poor  and 
the  savages  has  vanished.  The  Germany  which  gave  us  a 
Steuben,  a  Muhlenberg,  a  Sigel,  and  a  Schurtz  is  a  Germany 
which  has  past  away.  We  stand  confronting  a  Germany,  mad 
with  lust  for  gold  and  world-power,  which  in  school  and  church 
is  teaching  a  "doctrine  of  devils,"  proclaiming  that  the  crime 


GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE  21 

which  individuals  may  not  commit,  may  with  impunity  be 
committed  by  men  in  their  collective  capacity  as  states.  To- 
day it  is  not  necessary  to  be  "set  down"  "somewhere  east  of 
Suez"  to  find  a  place  "where  there  aint  no  Ten  Command- 
ments. ' '  It  may  be  found  wherever  Prussian  militarism  has 
planted  its  cloven  hoof  upon  the  soil  of  Europe.  We  are  fac- 
ing a  Germany  which  has  affiliated  itself  with  Muhammed, 
which  in  certain  circles  openly  advocates  plural  marriages 
and  like  Muhammed  demands  the  subjugation  of  the  world  to 
itself  by  the  might  of  the  sword,  a  Germany  unmoral,  brutal, 
inhuman,  which  builds  its  policies  upon  broken  oaths,  which 
shrinks  from  no  falsehood  which  seems  to  serve  its  purpose, 
a  Germany  without  conscience  and  without  heart,  which  iff 'the 
fellowship  of  nations,  when  it  comes  at  last  to  recover  its  san- 
ity, will  hang  its  head  with  shame.  We,  who  know  Germany 
best,  who  are  still  proud  of  our  descent  from  those  who  came 
to  this  land  from  her  soil,  seeking,  as  did  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
freedom  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences,  and  who  are  in  this  generation  "Americans  of  the 
Americans,"  are  filled  with  inward  loathing  today  as  we  con- 
template the  crimes  which  Germany,  while  invoking  the  aid  of 
Heaven,  is  committing  against  the  poor  and  the  defenseless, 
her  violation  of  solemn  oaths  and  covenants,  her  resurrection 
of  human  slavery,  her  defiance  of  the  principles  of  truth 
and  honor,  her  utter  lack  of  chivalry,  her  cold-blooded  brutal- 
ity, her  cynical  indifference  to  all  the  dictates  of  a  refined 
and  generous  manhood. 

But  I  have  said  enough.  It  only  remains  for  me  in  con- 
clusion to  repeat,  what  I  intimated  at  the  outset,  that  it  is  a 
gross  delusion  to  imagine  that  the  German  intellect  today  holds 
a  supreme  place  in  science  in  any  field.  When  you  hear  the 
claim  made,  deny  it!  Except  as  science  has  helped  in  recent 
years  to  fill  the  German  pocket-book  or  the  graves  of  a  hun- 
dred battle-fields  with  the  dead,  there  has  been  little  attention 
paid  to  it.  /  Even  at  his  best  the  German  has  mainly  been  a- 
daptive  ana  imitative,  not  creative/\  He  has  been  a  plodder,  as- 
similating and  using  the  results  of  the  work  of  other  men, 


22  GERMANY  IN  SCIENCE 

whom  he  had  not  always  thanked,  and  whose  labors  he  has 
often  appropriated  without  due  acknowledgement.  He  has 
been  intellectually  as  well  as  otherwise  dishonorable  and  dis- 
honest. Science  in  Germany  has  for  years  been  more  or  less 
decadent.  Six  years  before  this  war  broke  out  I  walked  with 
one  of  the  leading  scientific  men  of  Germany  through  one  of. 
its  museums.  I  commented  upon  the  appearance  of  things,  and 
asked  him  why  some  of  the  shabby  and  disreputable  fur- 
niture I  saw  about  me  was  not  replaced  with  something  more 
modern  and  up  to  date.  He  answered  me  by  saying:  '  'Heut- 
zutage  in  Deutschland  giebt's  kein  Geld  fuer  die  Wissenschaft; 
alles  muss  f  uer's  Militaerwesen  verwendet  werden. ' '  There  is 
no  money  today  in  Germany  for  science,  everything  must  be  spent 
in  preparationfor  war.  That  is  the  secret  of  Germany's  back- 
ward state,  for  morally  and  intellectually,  as  well  as  physically 
and  financially  Germany,  in  spite  of  all  her  boasting,  and  her 
vain-glorious  claims  to  human  leadership,  is  two  centuries  be- 
hind the  times.  Her  goverment  is  a  tyrannical  despotism,  her 
spirit  is  that  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  and  Philistines,  her  voice 
reflects  the  language  of  the  imprecatory  Psalms,  and  nottha^ 
of  Him, " who  spake  as  never  man  spake/'  Her  "Gott"  to- 
day is  a  creation  of  the  imagination  like  Moloch  or  Baal.  She 
has  exalted  the  sword  of  steel  above  *  'the  sword  of  the  spirit, ' ' 
and  instead  of  preaching  good- will  to  men,  she  chants  "songs 
of  hate"  born  of  hearts  filled  with  the  vanity  of  parvenus  and 
the  gall  and  worm- wood  of  envy.  Germany  by  the  acts  of 
her  bloody  dynastic  rulers  has  had  the  mark  of  Cain  set  upon 
her  forehead.  No  wonder  that  the  world,  from  the  palaces  of 
the  rich,  to  the  huts  of  the  savage  poor,  despises  her,  and 
will  in  coming  years  have  as  little  as  possible  to  do  with  her. 
Shall  we  in  coming  years  send  our  sons  to  be  educated  in 
her  universities?  Never  again.  I  say  NEVER!  They  will  learn 
little  science,  and  as  for  ethics,  they  might  as  well  be  sent  to 
school  to  old  Satan  himself.  Exchange  professors! — we  have 
had  too  many  already;  we  wish  no  more.  The  scheme  of  ex- 
changing professors  was  a  part  of  the  German  propaganda, 
cunningly  devised  to  help  promote  the  scheme  of  world-do- 
minion, hatched  by  the  Kaiser  and  his  confederates. 


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